Wave 1 and general Phasing questions

[TheJza]

Hello, I have recently started using Wave 1 again in order to give phasing another try. I re-read the entire Wave 1 tips thread that Frank started and have been using the cd 3-4 times a day for a short while now. I think I am able to get into a light Focus 10 rather easily, and one time I even startled myself by snoring. I do have a few questions, though, and I will number them to make things easier.

1. Imagining: Currently I am having a problem where I am always imagining myself in the 3rd person. When I try to imagine myself in the first person, I usually revert back to looking at the blackness in front of my eyelids, which I interpret as a snap back to C-1. How does everyone else imagine, 1st or 3rd person? I have tried figuring this out on my own, before posting, and this is what I have been doing recently: I don't imagine everything in detail. When I am walking, I just imagine feet walking and don't create everything else. I think I remember Frank saying in the Wave 1 thread that you should get more and more abstract with your visuals, so that you don't fall into creative visualization, so that is how I tried solving this problem.

2. When I am doing my rundown and walking along the stone walkway, sometimes I am stationary and the scene is moving and sometimes the scene is stationary and I am moving. When the walkway is stationary, I usually end up as a pretty small 3rd person character and I have to bring myself closer to be bigger again.

3. Also, another question I have is "where" do you all do your rundown? A specific problem I had and (hopefully) solved is with Frank's consciousness cone. I was imagining the cone above the physical head, but when I traveled up it to get the the attack with the energy conversion box, I was pretty far above my head and I had to move the whole attic to right above my eyelids in the middle of my forehead. I have since then just tried keeping everything there and it seems to work OK (for now). Has anyone else run into this?

4. Spacing out. I have noticed 2 areas where I tend to zone out during the CD. The first is when I am walking up to F10 from F3 and RAM is telling me to relax different parts of my body. I want to stay o task, so I am trying to do as he says, but there are relatively long gaps between his talking and I tend to start daydreaming. In not trying to force my concentration, I am also being too relaxed. The other area is when I get to my F10 hut. I just sit there and I get bored and usually fall into a slight dream. If I am not doing that, then I am imagining myself flying or throwing a ball or frisbee or something. What else does everyone do to keep their mind occupied instead of falling asleep?

5. Lastly, I have also tried getting the 3D blackness to come around by staring at the F12 stars from my hut. Whenever I do this (or am not active in F10) I usually snap back to looking at the black inside my eyelids. How do you all stare at the F12 stars without snapping back to C1?

Thanks for reading, I figure I am slowly getting the hang of things, and the biggest progress I have made is in my understanding of F10. I used to think of F10 as not being able to feel my body and being in a different world. Now I don't think that's the case, and I remember TMI people saying F10 is the same as when people get wrapped up into a movie and aren't focused on their physical body. While I am focused in my F10 hut, I am not focused on my body, and therefore I am in F10. I also stopped "checking" my body as much to see if I could feel it, because that would snap me back into C1 real quick.

[Selski]

Hi Jza

Like you, I have recently started out using the Wave I CD, also using Frank’s tips.  Here are some thoughts that may help you.

1.  Imagining.  Predominantly, when I started using the CD, I was imagining in third person.  It takes quite a bit of effort and concentration to go to first person.  I tend to find that with me, I walk across sand at the beginning and looking down at my feet whilst feeling the sand between my toes and the heat of sand on my soles can take me to first person, at least for a little while.  So, like you, I concentrate only on my feet and forget everything else.  Even though I’ve only been practicing for just over a week, I am getting better at first person.  Some sessions are better than others.

2.  Rundown.  I decided for the 4-10 rundown to go into a laboratory type room where there was “bed” (rather like a psychiatrist’s couch), with a pair of headphones.  I lie on the couch, put the headphones on and listen to Robert take me to F10.  This is because in physical reality, I am lay on my recliner chair with my headphones, so it is easier for me to imagine lying in a room, being gently taken to F10.  I tried walking the 4-10, but it just didn’t work for me.  Personally, I think the 4-10 is scientific, so I add a scientific bent to it (laboratory, headphones and so on).

3.  Rundown.  See 2.  During the rundown, I imagine doors on the opposite side of my room from where I entered, being slowly opened to reveal the star-studded night.

4.  Spacing Out.  Luckily, I haven’t had this problem.  During the rundown, I find I need to concentrate quite a lot on relaxing my face and body – in fact, it is one of my favourite parts of the CD!  And once you are in your F10 room, if you are feeling bored, why not try running from one side of the room and taking a giant leap into the starry night – with no expectations – and see what happens.  I did.  Great fun.

5.  It’s difficult, but you need to be in first person to do this, otherwise like you say, you end up looking at the back of your eyelids.

I think the more we practice, the easier first person will be.

Good luck and keep me informed.

Sarah

[Frank]

TJ:

Forgive the delay in replying but I’ve been giving this a lot of thought recently. You see, since writing the original post, I have come to realise that I automatically engage my physical senses within the rundown to a higher extent that possibly most people might. So I’m thinking now that perhaps I should have dwelt on this aspect more in my original post.

The problems you highlight in your sections 1, 2 & 4, I believe have the same cause and therefore the same solution. What I have to say also touches on what Sarah advises in her reply.

In my original postings, I do say for you not to get too carried away with the visualisation aspect. All you need to do is create the bare structure. Remember, you are in an environment where thoughts become things, so if you start visualising to a great extent then this can cause all kinds of unexpected problems. For example, parts of the scenery you create may suddenly begin taking on a life of their own, and that kind of thing. So keeping it all fairly abstract avoids many of the potential problems.    

Now, when you create a scenario, you need to engage all your physical senses. And this is the aspect I perhaps should have placed more emphasis on in my original post. Because I realise now that I automatically engage my physical senses to a high degree, and I rather assumed, without really thinking about it, that other people were basically the same. And it appears that they are not.

When you create the structure of your rundown, you only need to create just enough detail to engage your senses. No more and no less. In other words, you need to see your immediate surroundings, smell the flowers, feel the cool breeze on your skin, hear the birds singing, and so forth. But you don’t want to create something too detailed that you get lost in the creation of it!

For example, when I say “hear the birds singing” I don’t mean for you to create a line of trees full of nesting starlings, and all the mummy birds are keeping the eggs warm while all the daddy birds are catching the worms, and so forth. All I mean is, just imagine somewhere in the distance you can hear birds singing and the sound of that is drifting over to you from somewhere. In other words, you hear the sound without creating all the rest of the scenario. So, like I say, just enough to engage the action of your senses within you.

The key aspect is to engage your physical senses, because this aspect is what makes it work. Engaging your physical senses within you, is what tends to have the effect of focusing your attention inwards. So you need enough detail to engage all your senses, no more and no less.

You’ll find, I am sure, that the more you engage your physical senses within the rundown, the more easily you will find it maintaining a first-person perspective. This is what you should be aiming to maintain. I have experimented with all manner of mental rundowns since my beginning with the Wave-1 CD. What I found was the success of any rundown was dependant on the degree to which I could engage the experiencing of my physical senses within the rundown.

As I say, I do believe that the problems you highlight in your sections 1, 2 & 4 are caused by your failing to engage your senses to the requisite degree. It does take practice, I admit. Perhaps what you might want to try doing is going through a rundown where you mainly concentrate on just one sense only. Once you get the hang of that, then switch to another sense, and then another, and so forth, until you are familiar with bringing each sense into the forefront of your awareness.

You will probably find you are stronger on some senses than others. With me, I am very visual, but my other senses are quite strong as well. Once you have practiced using individual senses, start going through your rundown using pairs of senses and gradually work through to the point where you can handle all five at once. At which point you cannot help but be in a solid first-person perspective.

As regards your problem highlighted in your section 3:

I believe you are taking this too literally in a physical sense. You should be thinking more in terms of entering a mental space within you, not thinking of moving upwards in terms of physical space. Like, imagining anything above your physical head or anything like that. The place where you go is upwards into the expanse of your mind, not up in the sense of physically upwards.

The good news is, regarding your focus 10 experiences, you are absolutely right on track. Focus 10 is exactly like where your attention is focussed elsewhere to the extent where you are not thinking of your physical body at all. Of course, the moment you think about it, you instantly become aware of it again. At which point you realise that a moment ago you weren’t feeling it, and then the realisation dawns that you just broke the state you worked so hard to get into in the first place.

Problem is, a person cannot actively not-think of the physical. Because the more you try to not-think about it, the more you think about it, and the more you think about it, the more your attention is captured by it. Like, if someone is lying down and they think, “I wonder if my physical is relaxed yet?” Instantly they are snapped out of whatever mental state they had previously achieved, and the physical body comes to the forefront of their awareness again.

The only way around this is to focus away from the physical, and concentrate on something else to the point where it captures your focus of attention. That’s the reason for engaging your physical senses within you, during the rundown, because doing that greatly helps to hold your attention to the degree necessary to capture your attention and hold your focus. The physical grounds us to a high degree. In other words, it commands our attention and holds our focus like a powerful magnet.

If you have two magnets, one powerful and the other weak, and you place a piece of iron at the centre of them. The iron will go in the direction of the stronger pull. Imagine your focus of attention as that piece of iron. At the moment, your physical is that strong magnet. What you need to do is weaken the pull of the physical by allowing it to relax, i.e. shutting down your outer senses. This weakens the attraction of being in the physical. After all, what is there to focus on but the backs of your eyelids.

What you do next is create a more interesting set of circumstances within you, i.e. your mental rundown, which will attract your focus of attention. What you do, in effect, is present your focus of attention with a choice between either 1) staring at the backs of your eyelids or, 2) gravitating towards this engaging scenario “upstairs”.

HTH, and apologies again for the delay in replying. If you have any further points you wish to put to me then please do so.

All the best,
Frank

[Sage Daedalus]

I've recently started using these CDs as well. Thanks for even more tips, Frank. Good thread.

-Matt

[Frank]

Matt:

Thank you for your kind comments. I think what I'll do is make this a sticky for now in this forum, and see if any further questions come up. Then I'll move it to the Sticky Thread forum with my original post so it's all in one.

Yours,
Frank

[mactombs]

Thanks for this thread, it's helpful for me, too.

Lately I've been working on Focus 10. The description about the movies is really helpful as well. It also made me realize something.

Focus 10 is exactly like where your attention is focussed elsewhere to the extent where you are not thinking of your physical body at all.

This is the ideal state for writing. You totally forget you have a physical body at all, that you have hands typing, or that you are looking at a monitor. This state is fantastic for any creative undertaking. The more I learn about Focus 10, the more I realize how amazingly valuable it is.

With the first-person vs. third-person I relate to that problem! I always think third-person when I'm trying. But when I get into Focus 10 without trying so hard, everything just clicks in naturally and I don't have to try at all. Like Frank says, engaging the senses from physical seems to be the trick, and I don't think you have to worry much about how you do it, just relax and enjoy, it'll come naturally.

What else does everyone do to keep their mind occupied instead of falling asleep?

This is hard for me too. I listen to the Astral Abyss and it always gets me in deep without fail. The problem is, near the end of the track I always lose awareness. But ...

What you do next is create a more interesting set of circumstances within you, i.e. your mental rundown, which will attract your focus of attention. What you do, in effect, is present your focus of attention with a choice between either 1) staring at the backs of your eyelids or, 2) gravitating towards this engaging scenario “upstairs”.

My guess is that if you have a more solid engaging scenario you won't get lost. I think the reason awareness goes is because my mind goes chasing all these random daydreams like Alice chasing after the White Rabbit, and then follows to dreamland.

Again, great thread (there have been so many gems of late)!

[Selski]

Hello Reader

I thought I'd add an example of "getting too carried away with the visualisation".

A few days ago, I was going through my daily session.  As I stood at the energy conversion box, thinking about what I needed to put in, I realised that the Astral Pulse forums were on my mind (!) and I had to put them in the box before I continued.  I didn't have much time to pick a representation of the Forums, and I remembered the beautiful owl that is on the home page of Astral Dynamics.  

So, I imagined a real snowy owl, held it in my hands, and placed it in the box.

By this time, the owl had become a lifeforce on its own.  It flapped about in the box trying to get out.  The reality of the owl was incredible.  I could hardly believe I'd created this work of art purely from my imagination.  Of course, I realised my error and tried to turn it into a cuddly toy owl.  But I couldn't "uncreate" what I had created.

After some time I managed to close the lid and continue with the session, but unfortunately, my practice was all but ruined because in the back of my mind was the worry about the damned owl!!

So, the essence of this post - let this be a lesson to keep the imagination in check - and if you do "create" something, make sure it is inanimate - that way it is less likely to "come to life" on you!!

Ho hum.

Sarah

[Selski]

I have been using the CD daily for about a month, specifically Wave I, track 2.

My aim is to consciously create a screen and be able to simply observe the screen whilst being aware of my physical surroundings.

The CD is helping greatly by shifting my focus away from the physical.  I have created a rather basic rundown (the bare minimum) so as not to find myself “lost” in my own imagination.

Since starting the CD, I have had one session where I was doing quite well at being first person in the starry night in F10 when suddenly I realised there was a 3-D pattern on my eyelids.  Naturally (and most annoyingly), my physical eyes instantly tried to look at this pattern, and the pattern was gone, leaving me back in C1, very frustrated!!

However, since that session, I find I’ve lost the “naturalness” that was needed for the image (pattern) to appear.  I know I’ve got the ability – my dreams are full of levitation and control.  Also, I get screens fairly regularly when I’m either incredibly close to sleep or have just awoken.  These are wonderful reminders for me that I CAN do this, however, my real aim is to do this fully conscious.

I have a sneaky feeling that I’m trying too hard, in that sometimes I find ‘holding’ the starry night in first person quite a strain, and I have to remember to relax all my facial features (it’s normally the muscles that control my eye movements/forehead that are not relaxed).  

So, what I’ve done on occasions is not bother with the starry night and instead “played around” with my eyes/sight.  I find that if I start to make my sight fuzzy (this is difficult to explain – and anything that is difficult to explain probably means I’m on the right track!), I start to experience blobs and colours, even though I still feel mentally physical.  Fuzzy sight is easy to explain actually – I’ve done it on a Major Tom Sticky a while ago – if you look at a page in a book, you have two ways of looking at it, either “normally” where you can see the words in the forefront and are aware of the white page in the background (even though you are not looking at the background), or you can “fuzz” your vision and you are aware of the white paper and the words, but you can’t see either, so much so, that the words start sliding all over the place.  How I go about this fuzzy vision is to look “inwards” and the edges of my eyes/vision start curling in.  I go along with this “inwards/backwards” sensation and my eyes curl inwards in response.  Before too long, I’m not aware of the backs of my eyelids at all, but I am able to observe the blobs and colours I mentioned earlier.  I can see the blobs seemingly not with my physical eyes.  I’m not sure if this is F12 because I am still able to think stupid things like, “what’s that blob”, or “should I go back to the starry night,” or “surely I should be getting a screen soon” or (if I’ve not put the oven in the energy conversion box!) “I wonder what I should cook for dinner.”  

I think my first question is now:

My mental state still feels very “down-to-earth” at this stage.  Should I be doing anything to change that – to encourage the screen to appear?  Is the starry night preferable to the fuzzy sight, due to keeping focused (my concern being that going fuzzy could lead to mental drifting)?

In addition, I am finding first person has got harder since I started!!  Let me try and explain.  My “view” in the imagined “me” is all over the place.  Sometimes it is behind my eyes (where it should be, I guess), then it’s behind my right shoulder, then about 2 ft away and so on.  I can’t keep my first person view stable.  Of course, this first person view is intermingled with C1 and the back of the eyelids.  When I first started the CD, I thought it would be easy because I believed that one experienced first person, second person and third person.  However, I now find that when you are trying to be first person, outside of your physical first person, things can get a little tricky!

When I do my resonant tuning, I’m not sure whether “I” should be doing it (i.e. me sat in my chair at home in England), or whether it should be the imagined “I” (i.e. the girl sat in her red chair in the garden).  I find it incredibly hard to do both.

As a second example (and possibly a better one), for my 4-10 countdown, I imagine myself on a reclining chair with headphones on (exactly the same as in my physical reality), however, the location I am in is very different to my home.  I am now beginning to wonder whether this is the wrong way to go about it because at times, I find myself confused as to whether I am reclining in my wooden hut or at home!

Second question:  “Help?!”  Should I change my scenario?

And finally, as the sessions continue, I find I’m reluctant to “use” my imagination, in fear of creating my own experience.  I think this might be a hindrance, therefore should I at least have a few experiences where I “create” things, just to get me going, or is this bad practise?

Thank you for reading, and any advice is, of course, gratefully received.

Sarah

[Frank]

Sarah:

First off, you are making great progress and problems you are experiencing, such as having your perspective flitting about all over the place, are happening because of your progress. Thing is, when a person starts out, their sense of mental focus tends to be firmly stuck behind their physical eyes. Once you break that fixation, it can start hopping about like a spring lamb.

Resonant Tuning, you should do in your imagined “I” otherwise, yes, it can get confusing.

As you are discovering, there is a very fine line between too much, and too little concentration. Too little and you start drifting and risk falling asleep; too much and you become fixated and start trying to force it. None of which work. Ultimately, you must place yourself in a mental state where you allow non-physical reality to come into your awareness. Think of this reality as already being there (which it is!) all you need to do is look in the right mental direction.  

If we could simply look within, in that right direction, the reality of the non-physical would immediately reveal itself. Problem is, what all of us are battling to get through, to a greater or lesser degree, are the seemingly impenetrable layers of physical conditioning that cover the entrance to the place we need to be focusing within. But the more we accept our wider reality, and the more we attempt to make definite contact with it, the more of these layers we strip away.

The most beneficial tool we have to help us crack this, is our imagination. People tend to dismiss what they imagine as mere mumbo-jumbo. However, what actually takes place within our imagination is a highly important aspect of our reality, an aspect that happens to be situated right in the direction of where we are trying to switch our focus!

At this point we need to remind ourselves of Golden Rule number 1, which is:

There is nothing within your reality that is not real!

So when people dismiss their imagination, they are actually dismissing a vital part of themselves.

Now, when we imagine our rundown scenario, we develop a kind of split sense of awareness. There is the “you” that you perceive as being situated within your physical reality, i.e. looking at the backs of your eyelids; and there is the “you” who is perceiving whatever it is you are imagining, that is situated within non-physical reality. And because of this perceived split in your awareness, you feel a distinct sense of separation between them.

Note: the physical body does not have to be immobile to imagine going through a projection rundown. For example, I can easily imagine going through a rundown while washing up. It’s just that, for the purposes of projection practice, optimally, it is best for the physical body to be relaxed and “switched off” to as large a degree as possible. That is how it appears to be for most people, let’s say.

Right, so getting back to our split sense of awareness, there is “you” looking at the backs of your eyelids; and there is “you” perceiving whatever it is you are imagining in your rundown; and you feel a distinct sense of separation between them. At this point, you need to realise Golden Rule number 2, which is:

There is no separation or boundary within consciousness!

But even after knowing this, chances are near certain that you still perceive a distinct boundary between the “you” who is “here”, and the “you” who is “there”. And because you perceive there is a distinct boundary, you will also get a correspondingly distinct sense of separation. But that boundary exists only as something that you, yourself have created. When you perceive that boundary, what you actually perceive are all the layers of physical-realm mental conditioning that you have adopted in your lifetime, to date.

In reality, the “you” here and the “you” there, is all the same you!

In telling you all this, what I am trying to do is give you the background information on what is happening in the process. So, hopefully, the role that your imagination plays in the general projection scheme of things, will all start making more sense to you.

I don’t want you to be frightened of using your imagination! By all means, use it to abandon (at first). But the closer you get to stepping into that definite first-person perspective, the less you should need to use it. In other words, when we are feeling that boundary the most, we need to lean on our imagination quite heavily in order to draw us through that separation layer, which we feel is sitting between our sense of Here and There. Not that there really is any separation, when viewed against the background of the wider reality. But because we distinctly feel we are separated, we have to use our imagination as a kind of tool that, temporarily at least, breaks a hole in this barrier and allows us to pass through (in a manner of speaking).

Now, the act of this barrier fully opening up and allowing us to pass through, is the transition between Monroe’s mental Focus-level 10, to Focus-level 21. Incidentally, I believe what happened to Monroe is, after some time of passing through his own barrier, he broke it down to the extent where it no longer existed to any real degree.

So, as I say, use your imagination freely, at first. But you only want to be using it to trigger the transition (F10 to F21) process. Once you begin stepping into a definite first-person perspective (Focus 10), you have to be careful because you are actually entering the realms of your very own imagination. If you continue to use your imagination to the same high extent that you were using it before, in order to get you to this point, all manner of complications will arise. You’ll begin creating things here, there and everywhere. So the trick is to modulate the intensity or extent to which you use your imagination, depending on where you are in the process.

All you need to do is think of easing back on the gas pedal. I’m assuming you drive a car. In which case, think of your use of your imagination in the same way you modulate your use of the accelerator pedal, relative to the distance versus speed of the traffic in front of you. Your imagination is like this. At first, you feel far away, lots of distance to cover (figuratively speaking) so you can give it lots of gas and away you go. But as you get closer, you need to start easing back. If you find you have backed off a tad too much, then give it some more gas to get the thing back on track and rolling again in the right direction. Then ease up progressively the closer you get. Ideally, you want to be at walking pace (so to speak) the point you slip into first-person. As you slip in, you want a slight momentum to keep you making forward progress. But you don’t want too much intensity, as you need to leave a part of your awareness open to detect the next step in the process.

Of course, the next step is Focus 12.

The point where you can hold a definite first-person perspective is your entry into Focus 10. Now, what we want to do from this point is to trigger the transition to Focus 21. In my experience, this transition begins rolling of its own accord from the Focus 12 state. To a large degree, your achievement of the Focus 12 state is dependant on how well you can achieve Focus 10. If you can achieve what I call a neutral Focus 10, i.e. no revelling in your own imagination, just lock yourself in a solid Focus 10, releasing only a mild sense of curiosity, then this should trigger a transition to Focus 12. Then, once you reach Focus 12, as I say, the ball rends to start rolling of its own accord.

Yours,
Frank

PS
I think I answered everything, but if there is anything further you would like to ask then fire away, and I’ll do my best to help.

[Astral_Raven]

Frank or someone can you explain what phase one and wave 1 is please pm me or just post it. It sounds good I skimmed over some of the stuff I just need help knowing what it is.

-Astral Raven

[TheJza]

Astral_Raven:
Wave 1 is a 3-CD set that is part of the "Gateway Experience" that is sold by The Monroe Institute. There are 6 Waves in all, but Frank found Track 2 of Wave 1 CD 1 to be the most beneficial for phasing. For further information, search the forums or visit www.MonroeInstitute.org.

[TheJza]

Frank:
Thanks again for such in-depth posts. One thing I noticed this afternoon while trying to follow everyone's advice, is that trying to use more than just the sense of sight also helped to cut down the internal dialogue a bit. I remember you posted a message a couple years ago about shutting off the internal dialogue, but I was unable to find it.
Basically, I have not been trying to do this on my previous attempts using the CD, and I noticed that I easily get distracted and start flowing into an unconscious dreamstate. For example, typically I will be going through my rundown, but also commentating on what I am doing: "OK, now I am stepping, stepping, walking up. Ah there is the F1 marker" in order to help me get into F10 easier. I am not sure if this is helping or hindering. Is stopping the internal dialogue necessary for phasing to be successful?

[Frank]

TJ:

Something you at all times need to bear in mind, is what we are involved with here is shifting, or switching, our mental focus of attention (switching focus, for short).

The Golden Rule that applies here is: where we point our focus of attention becomes our reality. Now, at the moment you are physically focused, therefore, the physical realm is your reality. Problem is people are not used to switching focus. They spend a number of years when they are children, getting the hang of how to switch to physical focus more or less absolutely, and that is it. The next time they would knowingly switch focus, is on permanent disengagement of their physical.

What we are doing, however, is learning how to switch from physical focus, but without having to permanently disengage from physical focus! As an aside, this is the primary reason why the exercise tends to generate lots of fear in the minds of those who try. Because what we are doing, in effect, is actioning the process of transition. Something that only normally occurs at the point of physical-body death.

This is why it takes a while for your mind to catch on with what, exactly, you want to do. I mean, it’s obvious to your mind you do not wish to disengage physical focus on a permanent basis but, then again, you do not wish to switch to physical focus either. Okay, says the mind, then you must want to engage a subjective focus, which would normally mean, for most people, they go to sleep. But no, what you want to do is something in-between, which at first is mentally confusing. What you want to do is engage a subjective focus… but… have objective knowledge of your doing so!

The quick point I want to make here is that people who follow this line of approach (and I go into this in my book) need to start using the terminology associated with it, rather than the old mystical terms… which don’t really translate, as these kinds of terms are all to do with notions of “separation”, “leaving the body”, “astral realms”, and all that jazz.

Where we are going there are no astral realms, lol.  

Anyhow, with most people, the only reality they know is the physical. So for them there is no real need to make any distinctions, as making distinctions clearly implies more than one. But for us we need to be able to distinguish between the two different types of reality. So physical reality we term: objective reality. And any reality that is non-physical, we term subjective reality. These are the two primary distinctions.

So, in those terms, what you are attempting to offer yourself is: objective knowledge of subjective reality. And that’s what you basically say to yourself, as being what you want to do. You want to offer yourself objective knowledge, of subjective reality.

Okay, so the main reason why I’m telling you all this, is because it doesn’t matter a fig if you give yourself a running commentary or not. What we are engaged in here is an act of switching focus… not… quieting the mind! In the post you were looking for, I would have said (as I have said a number of times on this forum) I cannot understand where the idea came from that your mind should be “empty” for this to work. Because my own mind is far from quiet, and far from empty. I can hold a totally quiet mind if I wish to. I simply close my eyes, look out into the blackness and think of nothing. And guess what happens? Nothing!

However, when I close my eyes and actively involve myself in some kind of “imaginary” mental scenario, sure enough, it isn’t long before my focus of attention shifts, and I find myself in a first-person perspective within the scenario I was previously “imagining” (the state of which is Focus 10).

So your mind should be focused on the task in hand. It doesn’t matter how you do that. If you find that giving yourself a running commentary helps you focus, then do it for as long as it helps. I mean, if you find that standing on your head helps you engage your senses more within your rundown, then stand on your head. It really doesn’t matter. What I am doing is giving you the basics, and the hands on, nitty-gritty application is down to you. Because people do tend to be different in that.

What I can say to you, absolutely without question, is the key to not being distracted, is to engage your senses within your rundown scenario. I cannot stress this too highly. In doing so, a person from the “quiet mind” school of doing things would be totally overloaded with all the mental goings on. Because, as I say, my mind is anything but quiet! The thing you have to bear in mind is our objective, which is, a shift in focus. To do this we don’t want our mind to be quiet. We want our mind actively working towards achieving our shift in focus.

I tell you, often when I was first working on this, I wouldn’t realise that I had actually shifted focus!

I was SO busy concentrating on my rundown and going along with the flow of it, that suddenly I would “discover” myself being in first-person perspective within my rundown. And I’d think, “Hey it’s worked!” Of course, next instant the state would break and I would find myself back in the physical, kicking myself wishing I just hadn’t done that.

The other problem that can come about, at first, is you'll be going through your rundown and suddenly you'll feel you might be in a kind of half-and-half situation. Not exactly physical, but not exactly first-person within your rundown either. So again you check whether the state you are in is really a different state, by comparing against how the physical state actually feels, and that too breaks the state. At which point you realise you were in a different state, but by then it's too late, and you have to start again.

Problem is, not only does it take a little while to practice getting into the state; it also takes a little while for you to feel okay about knowing you are in it. At first, there is a tremendous temptation to make a comparison with the physical “just to check” that you are not actually physical. I don’t know why it’s so tempting, it just is. Of course, the very act of checking breaks the state. Later on, when you achieve Focus-21, say, you can have these kinds of thoughts and remain within the state. But the Focus-10 state is easily broken.

Yours,
Frank

[clandestino]

Hi there TheJza !

I'm sure you were using Wave 1 a couple of years back, at the time I began using it ?! Or maybe I'm thinking of someone else. I haven't used it in a while, I simply can't get the free time these days....This will change soon though. And when it does, I'll be hot on your astral heels, I hope ! hee hee.

Hi Frank, hope you had a good xmas !

When you create the structure of your rundown, you only need to create just enough detail to engage your senses. No more and no less. In other words, you need to see your immediate surroundings, smell the flowers, feel the cool breeze on your skin, hear the birds singing, and so forth. But you don’t want to create something too detailed that you get lost in the creation of it!

I recall practising Wave 1 & putting 95% of my efforts into "visualising" a scenario. Not only that, I was always looking to improve the quality by adding in details !

At the weekend, I was fortunate enough to awaken in the "right" frame of mind for practise. I simply imagined my non-physical hands "feeling" the environment, whilst at the same time I tried to engage my other senses. Hey presto, within seconds I was fully concious and standing who knows where, somewhere within the "astral" !

[TheJza]

Clandestino:
Yes, that was me using Wave 1 a few years back. I got frustrated and stopped, but hopefully I will use it until I succeed this time. Thanks for remembering me and congrats on your recent success - whenever I try doing  what you did I always end up falling asleep.